Pretoria - The SA National Defence Force on Friday denied a
report that former president Nelson Mandela's medicine was on board the
military aircraft that crashed in the Drakensberg near Ladysmith.

"There is no truth in that as far as I know,"
SANDF head of communications Siphiwe Dlamini said.

Neither did he want to entertain claims that Mandela's
medical team refused to board the plane out of safety fears. These claims were
made in a statement by the SA Security Forces Union (Sasfu), a trade union
which was deregistered by the defence department last year.

Severe weather conditions

On Friday, Beeld newspaper reported there was a possibility
that the plane, which was en route to Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, was allowed
to fly in the severe weather conditions because Mandela's medicine was on
board.

Colleagues told the newspaper that the pilots were
professionals who would not take chances unless there was a really good reason
for it.

Eleven people, including six SA Air Force members, died when
the Dakota aircraft crashed.

The aircraft went missing en route to Mthatha after it took
off from Waterkloof Air Force Base in Pretoria on Wednesday. It was expected to
land in Mthatha at 10:00. After no communication from the aircraft, the SAAF
activated a search and rescue mission but severe weather conditions in the area
hindered the operation.

The wreckage was located in the Drakensberg mountains on
Thursday morning.

Sasfu claimed that Mandela's medical staff was supposed to
have been on the plane, but safety fears stopped them from boarding.

"The aircraft that crashed has had technical problems
previously that have been reported by the medical staff who are taking care of
Mr Mandela in Umthatha." Sasfu said in a statement.

"Due to the incidents, the medical staff refused to
board the Dakota airplane... That is how their lives were saved from the
crash."

Dlamini said the claims were false, that the plane had been
overhauled and that it was basically a "new plane".

"As far as I am concerned these people [Sasfu] do not
exist. So I don't want to entertain that," he said.

"The only challenge the plane had was flying at a high
altitude."

Inquiry

A board of inquiry had been convened to investigate the
cause of the accident, Dlamini added.

"Investigators are deep in their work and we should
allow the inquiry to complete its work before we speculate on what
happened."

Dlamini said the SANDF was unhappy that the names of the 11
people were released by some media, saying it was unprofessional because not
all their families had been consulted.

"The names of the deceased will be withheld until all
the members of the family have been duly informed and given the necessary
respect," he said.

"I wasn't consulted prior to the release of the names
and I don't know what the urgency was."

The SANDF would release the list of names and give details
once all the families had been informed.

"A statement will be released once we are satisfied
that all the necessary steps were taken to respect the families of the
deceased," Dlamini said.

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